Book 2 The Search for More Knowledge
by Lepanto
Summary: Book 2 of the Power of Knowledge Series.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I own neither Harry Potter nor Naruto, nor any of the characters, and concepts associated with them.'words' = thoughts "words" = spoken **"words"** = spoken by monster, or used for emphasis. _"words"_ = foreign language (e.g. Parseltongue, French or Gobbledygook)

Chapter 1, The Start of Summer.

Naruto went through his kata one more time, moving seamlessly between different kicks, blocks and punches, as he warmed down from the day's training. While he was cooling down, he thought of back on his summer so far. His training was going well, he could now do the standard academy three without hand seals or calling out the jutsu, tree walking was now as easy as walking down a country lane, and water walking was almost mastered.

The highlight had been the acceptance letter from Hen-ry. It had given him the courage to sit down with his team a few weeks later... if only that had gone so well.

-flashback-

"Hey guy's wait up" Naruto called to his teammates at the end of a training session.

Something in his voice stopped his team in their tracks more so than the words, Naruto sounded... hesitant... and slightly depressed, two emotions no one would associate with the blonde.

"Hey Naruto, what's wrong?" Misu asked as the team gathered around him, trying to look supportive, while mainly just being inquisitive.

"There's something I need to tell you... something important."

Now his two friends curiosity was peaked as they quickly squatted down opposite him.

"So what's up?" Makoto asked.

By now Hamaki knew what the boy was going to say, and a quick look at the boy was answered by a confirming nod, causing him to step up to lay some ground rules.

"Firstly before Naruto get's started, what he is about to tell you is an "S" class secret which means?"

It took a second for the other two to get over the shock of the statement before Makoto answered hesitantly, "It means that if w...we tell anyone then we will be ki...killed."

"Exactly!"

"Hold on if it's an "S" Class secret how comes Naruto knows it and why is he telling us?" Misu asked, after all if she wasn't meant to know about it, she would rather not have the thing weighing her down as it were."

"I know it and I'm allowed to talk about it, because it's about me."

"In fact he is the only one allowed to talk about it in the whole village, outside of the Hokage... Hold on a second Naruto" the Jonin said as he drew a circle around the group with his foot before running through a series of seals, and slamming his hand into the ground yelling "**Suiton-Himitsu-Kabe-No-Jutsu**" Suddenly a giant pool of water shot out of the nearby stream, and a dome of water appeared around them.

"Holy Crap Sensei... What is that?" Misu asked as she stared at the dome of water for a second as Makoto poked it with his finger, only to have be forced sideways by the visible curent so quickly he had to check to make sure it was still there.

"Exactly what I just called out, this dome of water will prevent anyone from reading our lips, and any noise inside the dome is kept in, so that no one can overhear us."

These words only reinforced for the two genin how what they were about to hear, was something they were probably going to wish they didn't know. With a hesitant gulp the two ninjas turned back to their teammate who looked like he hadn't even noticed the changes around him, and was just staring at the ground, not looking anyone in the eye.

"OK Naruto, go ahead."

"Thank you Sensei,... Ok so you know how a little over 12 years ago the Kyubbi attacked the village?"

"Sure my mother lost a brother and her parents in the attack," Misu said, causing Naruto to flinch and Hamaki to send her a glare that she never thought to receive from her sensei.

"Well you know the story then of how the Yondaime Hokage killed the demon, at the cost of his own life?"

at this both genin nodded, neither saying anything after the look Misu had received after her last statement.

"That story is a lie. ... It's a lie for a very simple reason, it is impossible to kill the Biju."

His two friends quickly looked to their sensei for confirmation, not daring to speak up but at the same time wanting to challenge the preposterous statement that their teammate had just made. But their look was in vain as the old Jonin only nodded his head in affirmation to everything the blonde boy had just said.

Slowly, like a pair of oscillating fans the duo turned back to him, fighting the urge to run away, not wanting to hear anymore of this deadly secret, while at the same time intrigued by what they were about to hear. After all you don't become a ninja to run from trouble.

"Bijuu can't be killed, the standard way to deal with them, is to seal them away, usually into a baby, In the case of Kyubbi no Kitsune, into me."

The duo looked stunned at this news, as both thought along practically identical lines, 'they sealed a demon into Naruto?... Holy Crap!' Before the thoughts could progress much further though Makoto suddenly burst out into laughter.

"Good one Naruto, you almost had me believing you," he said as he continued to chuckle, "You're such a prankster!"

at this Naruto slowly lifted up his shirt and began to channel Chakra, causing the seal on his stomach to become visible.

"Holy crap!" Misu shouted jumping back, away from him, while Makoto suddenly was not laughing anymore, but was instead staring gobsmacked at his teammates stomach.

"I...I...Is that?"

"This is the seal that holds the Kyubbi!"

"So you're..."

"He is Naruto, Jinchuriki of the Kyubbi No Kitsune. He is a living seal that keeps the monster at bay!"

"So he's normal, or he's what?"

"For one, **HE** is right in front of you. Secondly it seems the seal that the Yondaime used, at the cost of his own life, have granted Naruto the ability to heal at super speeds, and may have affected his Chakra reserves. Some Jinchuriki's are badly sealed, and go crazy from being used as a seal, but if that was going to happen, we would have seen it by now! However if Naruto becomes seriously injured, which given his healing ability would be beyond a point where anyone else would be dead, or when he learns to use the demon's Chakra, the Kyubbi may influence him, and give him some extra abilities, like a Kekkei Genkai, along with a but load of Chakra. What they are, we don't know yet."

Hamaki responded in voice that brooked no argument and laid down the law.

"So,.." Makoto said, whetting his lips before continuing, "could he still go crazy?"

"Anyone can go crazy, especially ninja, hell Look at that kid Maito Gai. But if it was going to be Kyubbi related, given Naruto's upbringing, or lack of, we would have already seen it, he has been monitored very closely just to make sure of that."

"Hold on what do you mean monitored?" Naruto asked suddenly looking up, his voice holding a hint of anger.

"I mean that for most of your life there has always been a team of ANBU arround studying you."

"So when the older villagers were attacking me, teams of ANBU were just sitting around checking to see if I would go crazy while villagers would attack me and try to kill me?" Naruto asked his worries about the team ignored under this new information.

"So that is why all the older people in the village hate you? Because they think you're going to! go crazy and kill everyone?" Makoto asked as he put two and two together.

"No, those Kami Damned Assholes, hate me because they can't understand the difference and think I **AM** the Kyubi!"

"Hold on, if this is an "S" class secret how do they even know" Mikoto asked still standing a few feet further away from him than when they started."

"Because it is the worst kept secret in this whole damn village" Naruto growled out.

"Because the Hokage had to inform the counsel, and they went and blabbed to everyone. After the attack the village was in a shambles, and the Hokage could not at the time then turn around and execute the Counsel, he needed everyone together, and the peoples sudden hatred of Naruto meant that had he done that their might have been a civil war. After that, so many people knew that he couldn't execute them or there would be even less of the village left. So now, so long as you don't mention his condition around someone who is going to defend him on the spot and kill you, and you're talking to someone who already knows, then nothing will happen to you. If you tell someone who doesn't know though, and it comes out, all bets are off."

"So that's why all the younger kids get told that the Kyubi was killed?"

"That and it was a good story to tell foreigners. This way no one outside the village knows we have a Jinchuriki, a hidden ace up our sleeve, and we gain prominence for having such strong ninja that one of them was able to actually kill a Biju."

Evenutally it was Makoto who made the first move. He leaned over, punched Naruto in the shoulder, "was that all, I thought it was going to be something serious," the boy said with a smile, receiving a thankful smile from his friend.

Misu eventually followed up, "you've been in my store before, If my dad can serve you, with how he feels about the Kyubi, I don't see how this changes anything, " she said. They had been through enough, that Naruto had earned the benefit of the doubt, so she would back her teammate, just like she always had she decided.

"Good! exclaimed Hamaki, "I'm glad all this mushy stuff is over with" he said clapping his hands together, causing the dome to collapse, soaking his three students while he somehow remained as dry as a bone.

As soon as his teammates had split off to go home, Naruto once again cornered his sensei, "Hamaki-Sensei, we need to talk!"

"Oh, what about?"

"About this ANBU squad!"

"Naruto..."

"You can't tell me that every time as a child I was attacked that the Hokage had a squad of ANBU around me that could have done something, and they didn't and leave it at that."

"Naruto, don't you think you're shouting at the wrong person?"

At this the blonde stopped, before letting out a huff, gave a nod of understanding, and headed out of the training ground.

twenty minutes later Hamaki was reporting on the meeting with the Hokage when an angry Naruto burst into his office.

"Hokage-San, what is this about having me monitored, to see if I would go crazy while your citizens attacked me?" The boy demanded as he stood angrily in front of the old man.

"I thought I was doing my job Genin," an equally stern Hokage replied. It hurt that more of the truth was coming out, and that it was obvious that he had lost a little more of the blonde's devotion, but Naruto would have to learn sometime.

"Your Job? It was your job to watch me get beaten on a regular basis while you and your ANBU sat around and did nothing?"

"No, it is my job to protect the village to the best of my ability. Killing that many people would have put your good in front of the good of the village."

"How about not killing them, but just stopping them from almost killing me?"

"We did, why do you think you are still alive?"

"What?..."

"Damn it, think Naruto," the old man said as he slammed his pipe on the table. The act caused the boy to halt in his tirade and study the old man, who suddenly looked a lot older. The leader of the village collapsed into his chair, and scratched his head for a second before he looked at the boy again, "Naruto, do you know how many attempts there were on your life in the first few years?" the hokage asked seeing the boy now shaking his head, his expression equal parts questioning, and apprehensive about the answer. "Sometimes a full day wouldn't go by between attempts, and some of these attempts weren't just by drunken idiots, some of those idiots were sober, and trained shinobi!"

At this the old man pulled open a drawer and pulled out three cups, and a bottle of Sake. "Come on Naruto, you might need this if we're going to have this conversation, " Hamaki said as he passed the boy one the cups and helped himself to one while the Hokage threw the bits of pipe he had just smashed into the bin, and, grabbing a new one, prepared to smoke.

"the village was in a shambles after the Kyubi, Everyone, and I mean everyone, ninja & civilians, banker & laborer, farmers & merchants, had all lost someone, a daughter or a wife, a father or a cousin... everyone, lost someone they loved," the old man said after taking a long drag of tobacco, "You Naruto, were the scapegoat that bore the focus of all that misery. Add to that, at the time you were not the only thing on my plate. We had the village in shambles, Iwa rejoicing over the death of the Yondaime and potentially thinking about attacking, we were still cleaning up the mess left when Orochimaru was discovered to be a traitor, and I was trying to re-assert myself as Hokage in the council," he said, before draining the last of his cup, and refilling it from the bottle.

Seeing this Naruto suddenly remembered his own cup, and quickly downed it in one.

The back of his throat was hit with a burning sensation as the alcohol worked its way down, and the next thing Naruto knew he was coughing as his throat dealt with the new experience, causing his sensei to chuckle as he sipped from his own cup, and refilled his student's. Eventually the boy got himself under control and the Hokage continued.

"The first few major attacks on you, all happened while I was out of town, meeting with the Daimyo, or the leaders of other villages, some members of the council managed to convince the ANBU that they were needed elsewhere, and the mob attacked. Well once I found out about it, there was little I could do, the attacks had practically been sanctioned by the Konoha government, so a precedence was born that I could do little about."

"Hold on, the council tried to have me killed?"

"Of course! Council members had lost people too, and some of the rich civilian members decided to do something about it."

"So what happened to them?"

"to who?"

"The council members who tried to have me killed!" Naruto growled out.

"Nothing, they are still there. Naruto, these are professional politicians. They have the support of their guilds, who don't see what they did as wrong, and there is no way to fire them without a good Public reason."

"Like trying to kill me?"

"Which would raise questions about why, and your status as a jinchuriki would come into the public light instead of somthing that is mentioned quietly in back rooms. Your status would become common knowledge all over the elemental nations."

"So that's it? There was nothing you could do, and so I just had to take my beatings?" Naruto asked as the veil was ripped from his eyes, and he discovered how horrible the world can really be.

"Pretty much! I could keep you alive, and try to protect you through back channels, like by sending you to the library, but that was it."

Naruto felt drained. "That was it," the Hokage had said, as if that was an answer. He slowly became aware of a comforting hand on his shoulder, looking up there was his sensei looking down with compassion. The blonde threw himself into the man, hugging him for dear life as he cried, releasing all his emotions, into his teachers chest.

-End Flashback-

That night, had been a bad night for Naruto, as he realised how exposed and alone he really was. There really were less than ten people in the entire world he could trust.

Since that time, one consolation had been that everything had been alright with the team, completing several missions almost perfectly, each covering the others back. Sure sometimes Misu would look at him a bit odly, especially after a fight when he was sorting through the loot, but heck she had family to support her lifestyle and Naruto didn't. It also seemed like Hen-ry had been silent about the whole thing in the last letter he had received, it looked like he was going through something similar but hadn't talked about Naruto's problem at all, like he would normally do.

Things with the Hokage had still not been fully patched up, and the feeling of the loss of someone who had always been one of the bright spots in his life was something he was still coming to terms with, as he figured out how he should feel, and what course of action he was going to take with dealing with the old man, who had been like a grandfather to him, from now on.

"Alright team, good job" Hamaki said as he called the team together at the end of a training session, breaking Naruto out of his reverie. "You've all been doing good work, and I want you to know that as a team in a fair fight I would match you up against any genin team in the elemental nations."

The praise brought a smile to the trio, as they looked at each other with pride.

"Of course what kind of Kami-Damned Ninja fights fair?" Hamaki asked sternly looking at his three students.

"The dead kind, that's what kind... You know I heard Naruto hear mumble a statement to himself the other day, that I want all three of you to take to heart, it should be one of those phrases by which you live your life, Naruto do you know what it was?"

"Ummm..." the blonde uttered as he tried to remember anything memorable he might have said until his sensei could see that he had know idea what he was talking about, but the only thing that came to mind was a slogan about the greatness of Ramen.

"If you aren't cheating, you're not trying!" Hamaki said

A blush appeared on Naruto's face for not remembering mumbling that to himself, it was a phrase he got from Hen-ry a few months ago that had sounded cool.

"We are ninja, we cheat every time we can, that's why those Samurai hate us so much. So today we are going to be looking at poisons and antidotes. Something you should have been learning about back at the academy, but were obviously either asleep, or the school is run by idiots."

* * *

Harry collapsed into the empty seat on the bus, his new peaked cap covering his scar as he let his mind and body unwind as the automobile took him further and further away from his day's activities. As the bus slowly made its way through London traffic Harry cast his mind back on how lucky he had managed to get.

-flashback-

Harry had fumed in the backseat of Vernon's car for almost half the trip home, before he decided to engage his brain. 'Alright, getting angry doesn't solve anything. So now what.' Unfortunately his mind was a total blank. No sudden insight, no flash of brilliance, no lightbulb moment, Nothing. Until Vernon was turning off the M3, and Duddley said, "So I bet you're as rubbish at your school as you were at St. Grogory's aren't you Freak." And with that the heavens opened, the power came on that lightbulb lit up.

"Shut up Dudley." Harry replied putting all his residual anger into the statement.

"Don't you use language like that," bellowed Uncle Vernon from the front seat, "Now boy answer the question."

"Actually I have to take remedial classes over the summer." Harry said in a much quieter tone than before.

"What? Remedial classes?"

"Yeah, the school has set me up with a bunch of tutors to get caught up."

"Hold on, we aren't having any of your freaks coming around our house. We are a Christian household and we won't have any of that kind of thing here." Vernon said angrily as he made the turn onto Wisteria Walk, "I tell you Petunia, if that just isn't the limit. Those heathens will be parading up and down the street, and we will never get rid of them. I won't have them, not in my house."

"Don't worry Uncle Vernon, I can probably go to their place, If I can set it up properly, but it will mean being out of the house for long hours during the day."

"I've got a job to do, I don't have time to be running you all over!"

"Not a problem, I can take the bus. It won't be a bother."

"See that it isn't boy," the man said, fuming, as they finally came up to Privet Drive.

A few minutes later Harry had put down his trunk, and was opening the window in his room to let Hedwig in, where she settled on her favoriteperch, the back of the desk chair.

...

The next day Harry was up with the sun, and out of the house, summoning the Knight Bus while Petunia, the early riser of the rest of the family, was still fast asleep, her hands from long practice tightly gripping the last bit of blanket and sheet that Vernon had left her as he tossed and turned throughout the night.

An hour and a half later he was finishing off his breakfast in the Leaky cauldron, using his napkin to catch the drop of egg yolk at the corner of his mouth, and quickly checked to make sure the old hoodie of Dudley's was still pulled up, covering the scar, before heading off to the bank.

Harry's first job was a meeting with the account manager, the meeting dragged on for close to an hour, something that on reflection frightened the boy when he thought of the goblins' reputation for brevity and economy. Most of the things that the goblin tried to mention were above his head, but the gist of it was, Harry had made money over the course of the year, above something called an "inflation" rate, which was apparently important, especially since he was about to go out and spend a bunch of it. Although it did add one more thing to his list. He needed to pick up some books on business and accounting and such. If there was one thing to learn from Beau Geste it was the importance of keeping track of your finances.

On the bright side though was that he was now the proud owner of a debit card so that he could withdraw pounds in the muggle world from those cash machines attached to banks. There was a one sickle fee, and he would need to be careful to make sure he didn't end getting into trouble by bringing too much stuff home, but it would make his life much easier.

The next stop on his to-do list was Olivander's Wand Shop. However the earliness of the day meant that the boy was left cooling his heals in a small park in the middle of Diagon Alley for half an hour while he waited for the shop to open.

"Why Mr. Potter... eleven inches, Holly and Phoenix... I wasn't expecting to see you in my shop again so soon," the old man he had met a little under a year ago said, "there's nothing wrong I hope," he finished in a tone while searching obviously looking for something outplace to explain the boy's unexpected appearance.

"No sir, nothing at all," the startle boy replied a little quickly, as he once again checked to make sure his hood was still up, "Actually I came because a bunch of the other boys at school had wand holsters, and I figured I should get one. Also sir, my relatives mentioned something about a trace on my wand?"

"Ah, smart boy," the now smiling shopkeeper said as he waved the boy, as he waved him over to the far side wall.

"Here are my collection of holsters, this one is recommended for Hogwarts students," the old man said as he held up a piece of leather with straps to attach it to your belt, it looked a lot like the one Stephen had shown him on the train at the beginning of the year, "basic cow leather, with an endurance rune on the back so that it wont fray and should last you all 6 years at school."

"Is that it?" Harry asked as he looked at the holster, and the other options on the wall that all looked fairly similar.

"That depends, what were you looking for, I also have them made out of pigskin, and dragonskin. Of course if you want we also have the auror arm holsters."

"What are those like?" Harry asked perking up.

"These strap to the inside of your forearm, and with a practiced flick of the wrist your wand will spring into your waiting hand," the wizard said as he pulled a box down from a shelf above the display.

"So how much room does it need in the cuff?" Harry asked as he examined the thing that looked a lot like an arm guard that he saw archers use on tv, a smile on his face as he took in the object.

"Enough for your wand to pass through it comfortably, handle and all," Olivander said as he entertained the child, knowing that as soon as he mentioned the price the conversation would change, but there were no other customers to take care of, "it is made to go invisible when the wand is attached, and carries a small muggle repelling charm so that they won't notice it if they grab your wrist or if you're wearing short sleeve summer robes."

"Wow, how much?" Harry said as he examined the device, 'this thing is perfect!'

"45 galleons"

'Wow, forty five galleons, that is over £200,' Harry thought, "but it will allow me to carry it on me when I go around town... I wonder if he can make one for a knife?'

"Question, can you make one for my left arm as well as my right, and can it carry something other than a wand?"

"And why would you want something like that Mr. Potter?" the old man asked.

"Security, I was told I'm not allowed to do magic, and so I need a way to protect myself, should something happen. So I want to carry a knife, having a wrist shooter for a knife would be cool!"

"yes and the first time you got careless it would shoot out and stab you in the wrist. Then I would become known as the man who killed The-Boy-Who-Lived! I don't think so, I don't need that kind of trouble. After all if you get in that kind of situation, just use your wand, and when the aurors come to investigate they can deal with the problem."

"Wait, so if I use my wand underage, it calls the aurors? How does this trace work?" A worried young wizard asked, this no magic thing was apparently serious!

"Simple really, your wand acts as a magical beacon. Whenever magic is done around, or through it, it broadcasts a signal which is picked up by the Improper Use of Magic Office at the Ministry. When you reach your majority, the beacon charm is removed, but until then any magic you do is reported, and a team of aurors from the Juvenile Protection Division go out to verify why you used it, and or write you up for misuse of magic."

"Hold on, around it? What about for children of magical families, wouldn't the wand be sending out a message every time a parent uses his or her wand?"

"Yes, but if you come from a magical family you are in a known magical location, after all, most magical houses are registered, for the floo network, or they are behind such heavy wards, that the signal can't escape to be picked up, and so if the beacon activates in a known magical area, it is ignored."

"So you're saying that children of magical families can do magic at home to their heart's content, but I and other muggle raised kids can't?"

"If the parents allow it, of course, however, it is my understanding, that most parents don't tell their children how the law is enforced, just that they aren't allowed to do magic over the holidays, it cuts down on a lot of aggravation."

"Humph" was all Harry said as he chuckled at the old man's statement, "ok, I'll take it."

"You will?" a very surprised shopkeeper asked.

"Yup, in fact can I wear it out of here?" the boy asked as he dipped his hand into his money bag and pulled out the requisite number of Galleons.

"Of course, here let me attach it for you," the old man said, bending over the boy's arm as Harry rolled up his sleeve. "Now the motion to draw it is this one," Olivander said as he showed an odd wrist flick. It took the child a few attempts to get it right, and he knew it would take many more before it became second nature.

Harry headed back to the leaky cauldron, practicing the wrist flick trying to get it down before putting his stick away as he entered the pub.

"Hey Tom" Harry said, getting the man's attention from behind the bar.

"What can I do for you sir?" The courteous manager asked as he looked at the boy who had been in here earlier, always keeping his face hidden behind some weird muggle garment.

"Do you have a phone and a yellow pages, you know for muggles?"

"Nope, but if you go out into the street, and turn left, two streets down is another pub, The Coal Shovel, they have one of your Felytones in there."

"Thank you."

Twenty minutes later Harry was sitting at a table next to the phone, leafing through the book, a hot cup of tea sitting, ignored, off to the side. Finding the correct section, he then pulled out a copy of the London A-Z plotting each salle, before finding one just a short fifteen minute walk away.

He was soon there, knocking on the door of the office to announce himself to a stocky white haired gentleman with a giant moustache, and a jovial face. "Good morning sir."

"Good morning, I don't think I know you. How can I help you young sir," the old man replied as he got up from his desk and walked over to the boy, "Joe Slim" he said as he held out his hand.

"Sorry, Henry Potter" Harry replied quickly shaking the offered appendage "Well sir, this is going to sound a little strange, but at school I had this neighbour who was teaching me to fence privately, and I was hoping that I could continue my instruction here."

"Ah, got the bug have you?" The man asked, happy to see a youngster willing to see something through and not get distracted and give up halfway through as most of them seemed to these days, "Good show young man, good show, well let me give you the tour." With that he lead the boy down the hall towards the pistes.

"So what grade are you Henry?" Joe asked as they took in the fencing hall.

"Grade sir?" a confused eleven year old asked.

"Yes your fencing grade, surely your instructor was grading you."

"No sir, it was a more casual affair, he just taught me how to use the sword, It wasn't part of anything formal."

"Well that wont do, if you aren't graded, you wont be able to compete. So are you learning the Foil, Epee or Sabre?"

"Actually sir, the Sabre and the Rapier, although I am sure the skills will carry forward."

"The Rapier? What is this man teaching you?" the man asked now slightly worried about this crazed man somewhere in England, teaching children the rapier.

"How to use a blade."

"Listen Henry, the rapier is not a fencing weapon. I don't know what he's been teaching you, but I'm a little worried."

"Well if you don't mind, and if I can borrow a blade, and a mask why don't we spar?"

"um... ok, why don't you grab them from the racks over there, and I will go get my equipment."

three minutes later, after Joe had to show him where the starting mark was, they saluted each other, and quick as a whip Harry closed the distance and lunged. The lunge had a good form, but was easily parried by the older and more experienced fencer. Joe allowed Harry to attack a few more times, evaluating how the boy worked offensively, before moving on the attack himself. Here he tried to keep things mostly within the range of what Harry had shown him, this time evaluating how the boy worked on defense.

The fight continued for 6 more minutes, until Mr. Slim forced the boy back, before quickly disengaging, and calling for a halt.

"I don't know what your old friend thinks he is teaching you Henry, but that is not Fencing," the old man said, his voice curious than anything else, "that was fighting."

"I don't understand sir," a confused Harry replied.

"Fencing is a sport, specific blades are used in specific ways following carefully laid out rules. You followed hardly any of them! We moved all around the salle, instead of stiking to the piste, and that move with the knee was quite uncivilized. You were fighting with a blade to win a fight, not to win a competition."

"So what does this mean sir?"

"Well it means we get to teach you the sport. It might seem a little boring at the beginning, because you obviously know how to handle a blade, but we will start at grade one and work up from there. The good news is you should be able to run through the first few grades pretty quickly. In the meantime you will create a name for yourself amongst the beginners," Mr. Slim said chuckling, "However, you're going to need to reign it in a good bit, only stick to what we show you. Otherwise someone might get hurt, and we will have to let you go!"

"So you'll let me join?"

"Of course, you've obviously studied hard, and should enjoy the sport, it'll be a pleasure to teach you."

"Will I need to buy any equipment?"

"not at first, just show up in a tracksuit with clean trainers. Since you're only here for two months you wont really get much of chance to compete this summer, so you can use our jackets, masks and swords, but if you want to take fencing seriously you will want to buy your own proper kit eventually."

"Thank you sir."

"Not a problem, now follow me back to the office and we'll get started on the paperwork."

A few minutes later Harry had signed up for their twice a week junior class, stating he would return tomorrow, with the required permission slip signed.

"Oh, Mr. Slim, two quick questions, I was advised to take some dancing lessons over the summer, a good way to meet people outside of boarding school, and I was hoping to take some martial arts classes, do you know of any in the area?"

"Wow, a boy actually looking for dance lessons, you don't see that everyday," the moustached man said chuckling, "actually for dance lessons, there are a couple of schools in the area, we have some business cards here that they dropped off. I don't know if they are any good, but they have all been around for a few years, so it depends what style of dance you want to learn. For the martial arts though, if you go 4 streets down and then turn right, there is a place that several club members use."

"That's great, thanks for the help," Harry said as he left, eager to hit up both places.

The trip to the dance studio went fine, a few minutes after arriving, he had answered all of the woman's questions, and had signed up to take classes twice a week. Leaving only the martial arts studio on Harry's to do list.

The building looked more like a house than a dojo, with the only evidence being a sign on the door labeled The Fighting Arts, but it was the only thing he had seen, as the rest of the businesses were cafes, electronic shops and tourist stores. Stepping inside though, allayed some of his fears, as he looked upon a large open area that with exercise mats laid down, and a small office stood next to the stairs leading up to the second floor on the back wall. The top part of the walls were covered in different framed photographs, and a row of folding chairs were set up against the left hand side wall, where an old man, who looked to be in his seventies was sitting in a three piece charcoal grey suit, his hands resting on an umbrella, while a man in his forties was going through drills with another slightly older gentleman. They weren't even wearing Gis like Harry expected, but were in t-shirts and track suit bottoms.

As soon as the current drill ended with the leaner and older of the two men throwing the bulkier one to the ground and then helping him up they turned to him, the victor saying, "hello son, can I help you?"

"Yes sir, Mr. Slim at the fencing academy nearby said that you were a martial arts gym, and I was hoping to join."

"Ah, you went the wrong way son," the loser of the match said, "He meant George's place, you actually went in the complete opposite direction for the one those fencers go to."

"Oh, but this is a martial arts center?" a curious eleven year old asked.

"Well yes and no."

"I'm sorry?"

"Shut up Dick," the youger man said, "sorry son, what Mr. Pearson meant is that we don't normally teach the traditional martial arts."

"So what do you do here?"

"We'll were sort of a mix bag really, a bit of everything, although mainly based around dealing with real life situations. Stuff that if you need it will work, but if you are caught using it on people who don't deserve they'll have you up on assault charges."

"So, is it better than learning Karate, or Kung Fu?"

"Depends what you want to get out of it. A lot of those chaps are downright lethal, and we use a lot of stuff from both. Sort of like Jeet Kun Do in that way. So the question is what are you looking for?"

"Well I have a pen pal in Japan," Harry said as he started to tell an abridged and highly edited version of how he got his taijutsu form, "... So I was hoping to get pointers to see if the stuff I learned was correct, and if I was doing it right, and to practice in hand to hand fighting with someone who could push me and teach me some new stuff."

By the time he had finished his story, there was a gleam in the lean man's eye, "Oh, I think we can do that son, that shouldn't be a problem at all, now let's get you signed up, by the way, I'm Frank Carter, this is Mr. Richard Pearson, and over there is Mr. Burroughs."

"Pleased to meet you sirs."

ten minutes later Harry had a second permission slip to get filled in later, and a promise to be by tomorrow for his first lesson. He had even managed to schedule it so that the martial arts class would be right after the fencing lessons, on Tuesdays and Thursdays. That with the dancing on Mondays and Wednesdays meant that most of his week was starting to fill up. His last stop of the day was to pick up some exercise clothing, and some lunch, then it was home to get started on the work Hogwarts sent him home with over the summer, and all the muggle subjects he needed to catch up on. The next day he had shown up with forged permission slips, and ready to start fencing.

-end flashback-

Yup, things had turned up all right, ... well mostly alright, which was why he was now headed over to his mate Justin's house, a fellow fencer, to watch some epic movie called The Dam Busters. In fact a bunch of his new acquaintances were going to be there. There had actually been a bit of a public outcry when he said he had never seen it.

The only things holding him back were the nightmares he was having. Every day he woke up in a cold sweat, thinking about the end of the school year. He had hoped that by now he would have heard from Naruto, after all, if anyone knew what he was going through it was the Ninja, he should have some advice. But it seemed like his friend was on a mission, in fact he hadn't received a single letter from anyone this summer.

He had found a partial solution though in keeping busy. Every morning he would wake up and head to the old clearing to work on some of his jutsus, before getting cleaned up and heading into town to find a quiet cafe to sit at while he did his muggle school work. The afternoons were great. If he didn't have a class he explored central London, taking in the odd movie, the Imperial War Museum, and bits of everything else the great city had to offer.

* * *

Dumbledore sat in the staff meeting looking over the results, dumbfounded, it should be pointed out though that he wasn't the only one, every head of house except Professor Sprout had their mouth open as they looked at the results the Ministry had just sent over.

"How the hell are almost all the top spots in all the years taken by one house?" hissed out a very angry potions professor. He worked his snakes to the bone damn it to make sure they would at least come out tops in potions and defense, the class he really wanted to teach. But while his top students at least had made good marks, he was looking at almost perfect scores across the board for those stupid badgers.

Minerva McGonagall was also at least slightly miffed. She had been bursting with energy for the last three weeks, looking forward to crowing about the achievements of Ms. Hermione Granger, a lion beating those ravens at their own game, only to have her come in eighth in the year, and on top of that, any celebrating she chose to do at the impressive achievement for a muggle born first year, would seem paltry when compared to how she was beaten by those seven Hufflepuffs. She couldn't even discuss the topic because Pomona had decided to play the modest 'puff, and show her humility by not drawing attention to her house's success,... how absolutely typical of her.

Flitwick on the other hand was still wrapping his mind around the papers in his hands. The Ravens had lost to that group of old duffers, 'I mean they are nice people, but how did they do this?' His students were going to have fits over the summer when their grades came out, and he was going to be inundated with owls. There went his plans for a nice quiet summer. But how had Ravenclaw lost? Badgers were hard working, but it wasn't like his children were Gryffindors or Slytherins, they worked hard to, and they could generally grasp things easier, which meant they had more time for other things, which for a 'Claw normally meant studying something else. This result was going to create a lot of upheaval next term. It might even launch a rivalry to match that between the snakes and the lions. Those damn badgers had literally thrown down the gauntlet with these scores.

Above all of this the picture frames were stuffed full of portraits, who were constantly popping in and out as they left to find a quiet place to laugh. They had just played the biggest prank any of them could remember by portraits on the living. That would teach those idiots who call themselves teachers to forget about them! In the corner Sir Nicholas looked on, filled with pride at the chaos and upheaval his student had managed to cause in one year.

"They cheated, they must have," a certain head of house finally said, as the papers in his hand were crumpled as he balled them into fists.

"**Excuse me, My Badgers Don't Cheat**," A now angry Professor Sprout replied.

"How else do you explain someone like David Summersby getting an O in potions, that boy is about as smart as Ron Weasley!"

"That's enough Severus," the headmaster said quickly looking to defuse the situation before the rest of the professors ripped him to shreds, 'why does that man have to antagonize everyone?' "I must say though these are astonishing results, you must be very proud Pomona."

"Thank you Albus, I am..."

"But these scores do seem out of character for your lot," the grey bearded man continued quickly, "It might be worthwhile to call in Mr. Abner, we could give him the good news about his scores, and ask if he knew anything about these anomalous results."

Snape was practically wringing his hands in glee as the old man made a flew call, and 5 minutes later the former head boy of Hufflepuff had appeared before them.

Headmaster," the young man acknowledged as he nodded his head in the old man's direction, "so what can I do for you all today?"

"Well Mr. Abner we just wanted to congratulate you, we just received the scores, and you received an O in all your subjects."

It took a second or two for the news to sink in, but no one could miss the large smile that appeared on George's face. "Thank you sir, my parents are going to be thrilled," he said as he shook the headmaster's hand, and then hugged Professor Sprout.

"Yes a truly impressive achievement, one that we wanted to talk to you about," Dumbledore said as he waited for the boy to finish hugging his housemistress.

"What do you mean sir?"

"Well it would seem that many of your housemates managed to achieve similarly astounding results."

"How did you cheat boy?" an angry potions teacher growled out

"I didn't cheat Snape" Abner replied angry at the accusation. He was the headboy of Hufflepuff, some of these teachers had known him for 7 years, if not longer, but now looking around he could see that while they weren't going to accuse him like the snake, they were still dubious about his answer.

"I'm sure what Professor Snape meant was..."

"I mean that that boy knew the answers!"

"Well of course I knew the answers, how else do you think I go all Os."

"You see he admitted it!" an elated snape snarled, vindicated at last.

"I think the question is, how Mr. Abner did you know the answers?"

"I studied, the whole house devoted hours a day to studying for the exams... Were Hufflepuffs, we know how to work hard... I don't understand the problem," George replied trying not to sound like he was talking to children, while at the same time not giving into the anger he was feeling at the way these educators were responding to all their hard work.

"Oh they're just mad because we trounced the other houses across the board," Professor Sprout said from her seat where she too was seething at the accusations directed at one of her favourite students.

"So no one gave you inside knowledge of the tests?"

"Do you mean like when Professor Vector told the entire class what the syllabus was, so we would know what we were going to be tested on? Or do you mean did anyone give us a copy of the test we were going to take beforehand?"

"The second one," a vexed headmaster replied, wanting to quickly get to the bottom of the whole mess.

"No"

"Liar! Albus I have some veritaserum in my office, give me ten minutes and we will know the truth."

"and an hour and twenty minutes later you and the headmaster will be under arrest for assault. Or would you use your Death Eater training to put me under the Imperious so I couldn't?"

"Now now, I think we all need to calm down, Mr. Abner Professor Snape would never do something like that, that period of his life is over, and he has since reformed his ways. Really, I'm ashamed that you would even bring it up my boy."

"But him threatening to drug a son of a Wizengamot member is acceptable?"

"No, but you also did not need to react as you did."

"True sir, there is enough blame to be shared by all three of us, but it seems I am the only one willing to acknowledge such, so in order to defuse the situation, I will bid you all a good day!" With that the recent graduate marched out of the teachers lounge, and headed for the exit, only stopping to pull into a classroom along the way, where he took the time to personally thank every portrait he could see for their help over the school year, and promise never to tell anyone about it. As soon as he was off the grounds the eighteen year old apparated home to tell his parents the good news, and the worrying actions of a certain Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot.

...

Albus Dumbledore though now had a problem on his hands. That Young Abner had very efficiently put him in his place, as well as having pointed out that he might have just made an enemy in the Wizengamot, a place where he needed as many friends as possible, 'Damn Him!'

"Well that went well" Professor Burbage said as she poured herself a cup of tea from the trolley in the corner. "What shall we do next, threaten to expel the whole house for getting good grades?"

"I have to agree with Charity," Rolanda Hooch added from her chair, "None of the Ministry examiners, nor any of us saw anything suspicious during the exams... I think you just managed to make a bit of an arse of yourself headmaster."

"Yes it would appear so, it looks like I got too caught up in the moment," the much beloved old man said, accepting his slice of humble pie.

Snape on the other hand was seething, 'that damn boy had the gall to bring up my past! Who did he think he was! Those Hufflepuffs aren't going to know what hit them this year!' he was in fact so wrapped up in his own thoughts of anger and revenge that he did not notice when the meeting ended a few minutes later, as he continued to stare at the wall trying to figure out a way to regain the upper hand on that upstart.

That evening Sir Nick stood in front of a portrait of three dancing trolls on the seventh floor, thinking of exactly what was needed, creating a room with a giant tapestry taking up every wall in the place, where the pictures of Hogwarts celebrated their achievements with the biggest party any of them could remember. The painted wine flew like water, the instruments were played maybe not well, but with enthusiasm, and a good time was had by all.

* * *

The whole gang was in the potions store looking for poisons. After Hamaki's lecture on their importance, the jonin had then spent most of his time on safety issues, making sure his genin had a way to deliver the poison without hurting themselves, and teaching them about the different ways of dealing death without being poisoned themselves. Everyone seemed to have a smile on their face, except Naruto who had managed to identify certain smells in the room from foods he had eaten a time or two that had almost sent him to the hospital. "Sensei, what about this one?" Misu asked holding up a pot of thick grey paste for him to look at.

"Not bad, the lye in it will burn, so take care in applying it not to get any on your skin, the extra pain should also give you an edge in a fight.

"What are these ones over here for Hamaki-sensei?" Makoto asked as he looked at a group of vials.

"Those poisons?" the teacher answered as he came over to examine the bottles, "they're poisons, these three are good for assassination missions. Not something you can really use in a fight though. If you put one of those on a kunai and cut your enemy, he might die, but that will only be many hours later, during the fight those wouldn't incapacitate or distract. These two, have almost the same problem, however they would work for traps, let's say you're running from a fight, and you set up a trap as a distraction, its not a big trap this time, something that they practically ignore and leaves one of them with nothing but a scratch, not enough to distract them or put them off the hunt and want to get you first, then a few hours later into the chase, the scratched enemy start to feel week, and then keels over dead, giving his or her teammates more things to worry about, giving you more of a chance to escape and worst case scenario giving you one less enemy to fight if and when they do catch up with you.

"Wow"

"Now what does this mean for you guys?"

"What sensei?" Makoto asked, unsure about what he was asking.

"It means that if you get a small scratch in the forest of hurt by a simple booby trap, to stop and take care of it, 'cause it might be poisoned." Hamaki replied, seeing the blank looks from his students. Listen kids, the best ninja are those who attack their enemy where they don't expect it, and learn from their actions. Remember, for every trick I tell you, someone else could use it on you. So whenever I tell you a story, the first thing to think, is how do I stop that from happening to me, 'cause if I'm telling you this story, it's a good bet an enemy jonin is telling his genin the same tale...OK?" He asked, glad to see the light of understanding in their eyes, 'I only hope they don't get cocky and forget that like so many other groups'. he thought as he went back to helping them pick out poisons and antidotes.

A weak later, before they were comfortable enough with their new toys for Hamaki-sensei to allow them to use them the team was off on another mission. This time a simple courier job to the capitol, but it would be the genins' first trip to the big city, so everyone was in high spirits as they sprinted along the tree tops.

The trip was, as expected, completely uneventful, no bandit was going to be stupid enough to get between the Daimyo and his ninja village, and occasionally when one did, the gang did not exist for very long. Team 14 now had a week to themselves while the bureaucrats read through the missives they brought, and the daimyo considered his responses. A week's vacation in the capital was a dream come true for three twelve year olds with little supervision. All three took off exploring, with Makoto going off to see the theatre, Misu taking in some of the historic monuments, and Naruto, who could often be found in the middle of the market district, reveling in being around this many people who weren't giving him dirty looks.

Three days into it Naruto was finally taking the time to explore rather than take in the atmosphere, he had two missions on his mind, first was buying new clothes, now that he was in place where the shopkeepers would sell to him. Sure the prices were higher than they would be for the average person in Konoha, but they were so much lower than what he was saving up to pay that the boy was on cloud nine. Secondly, Hen-ry's birthday was right around the corner and he hadn't found anything his friend would like yet.

Naruto walked through the shopping district munching on some yakitori he had bought from a street vendor, as he window shopped, until something suddenly startled a nearby horse causing the beast to rear up and bolt. Luckily he was by a nearby alley, and quickly sidestepped out of the way. The blonde decided to examine the new alley, and let his feet carry him down the quiet side-street. After a hundred yards the genin came across a black smiths with a weapons store right next to it. Remembering that he was running low on decent kunai, the boy walked into the store to examine their quality.

The store was clean and well organized, with walls and racks full of gleaming weapons. "Can I help you young sir?" a stern voice from the counter called out.

"Hai" Naruto replied, turning around to take in the old shopkeeper who looked in his fifties from what he could tell around the pointy beard.

"Ah, a ninja," the man said instantly recognising the hitai-ate, "sorry I thought you were some snot nosed kid who was going to try and steal a tanto or something."

"Does that happen often?"

"No, my store is out of the way, and my prices are generally high enough that I only get the people who need quality weapons, rather than the kids trying to be cool and play samurai & ninja. But still, all you need is one child whose parents have connections, which is practically everyone in this town, and the next thing you know I am being investigated to appease some government lackey. So what can I do for you young sir?

"I need some new Kunai, with a matte finish, some more ninja wire, and I'm looking for a gift for a friend."

"Well the kunai we can certainly help you with," the old man said with a small chuckle, "now for your friend what does he like?", he asked as he led the boy over to the kunai section where they were arranged by size.

"Um, he likes to read, kenjutsu,..."

"Ah, then he probably has a copy of Musashi's Book of Five Rings?"

"Actually probably not, what is that?"

"This is a book about fighting written by one of the greatest sword-masters in history."

"Wow," Naruto replied as he reverently took the proffered book, and leafed through it.

"I don't think he has this, it's perfect!" and excited Naruto exclaimed happy to have one of his missions accomplished, now all I need is some clothes and I'm set!"

"What type of clothing?"

"I need a couple of sets of good, sturdy, no frills stuff for when I go on missions, with a waterproof poncho, and then some civilian clothes, including a kimono or two. Oh and if you know a place where I can pick up a good sleeping bag with a winter liner that would be great."

"Well for good clothes for when you are out in the field there is a hunter supply store near the east gate, if you go to their and ask the guard for Kariudo's and they should direct you. They should have some sleeping bags as well. For the rest, if you go back to the main street and walk two blocks south, you will come to a side street. Turn West and there are a bunch of clothes shoppes for you to choose from. You should be able to find something you like."

"Thanks a lot!"

by the end of the day Naruto had almost a full wardrobe, he just needed to make one more trip to the stores to pick up his kimonos after they had been altered. Overall, this was going down in history as one of Naruto's best weeks ever, that was without including the C rank pay for a week that was waiting for him back home in Konoha!

* * *

"No Henry! Why are you backing off? you never back off! you take the initiative and you keep on them until they are defeated" Mr. Carter yelled from the side of the room where he stood, off the mats.

"Listen son, compassion, mercy, charity, these are all great qualities,...For After The Fight! Remember your Henry V boy!" his opponent, Mr. Burroughs, told the boy with a sneering expression, as the twelve year old was sweating like a pig, and resting his hands against his knees trying to catch his breath.

"Now, 'imitate the actions of the tiger' and let's do it again." Carter called from the side.

Before Harry was ready Frank called the start, and the old man he had first encountered when he came into the gym originally forced the boy to dive to the side before quickly scrambling up and going to meet his adversary. The pensioner, extremely spry for someone, who it turned out was only in his late sixties, made the first move, a punch to the face. which Harry blocked while he finally moved within striking range himself, before unleashing a kick to the groin, which was blocked with one arm, while the other went for a stranglehold, while simultaneously bringing his knee up to give the boy a dose of his own medicine. Something that if it had happened three weeks ago would have left his sprawling on the floor. Harry though learned from his mistakes, and the knee met the cup the boy had purchased just for that reason after being on the receiving end of a similar move a few too many times. It did however cause an involuntary flinch along with bringing his legs together to try and absorb some of the blow, causing the old man to be able to get past the block Harry threw. A second later he was tripped up, and once again found himself on the ground, before Mr. Carter called an end to the day's training, not exactly how one would imagine spending one's birthday.

"You're getting better boy," Mr. Burroughs said from his seat where he was once again resting his hands on the umbrella he used as a walking stick when he wasn't training with Harry.

"Thank you sir," Harry replied as he walked out of the changing rooms, "Sir, can I ask a question?"

"Surely."

"Why do you always have the umbrella with you, their hasn't been a cloud in the sky all week?"

"You never know when it's going to rain boy."

"But the weather report has called for clear skies for the rest of the week."

"No Henry, it's a figure of speech," Mr. Pearson explained as he stepped out of the office, "although by now you should have realised that those meteorologists are wrong pretty damn frequently, what he means is that you never know when something is going to happen, Mr. Burroughs along with everything else he's picked up also knows a little Bartitsu, stick fighting."

"Ohhh," the boy replied, "So he can use one of those old umbrellas as a weapon?"

"Exactly, and on top of that the old man with an umbrella act means anyone who goes after him is going to underestimate him... That, and it's handy if it rains," the bulky man said, clapping the boy on the shoulder.

"Wicked!"

Harry spent the rest of the afternoon at Regent's Park, taking a break every few minutes to stare at the actors doing a dress rehearsal on the outdoor stage while he worked through his biology text book. 'I really need a place to do science experiments... if only I had my own house', he thought as he once again read about the next experiment the book suggested the students do, 'Hold on, who's to say I don't have my own house?'

Before anymore thought could be given to the subject Harry's thoughts were interrupted by Susan, a blonde 12 year old from his dance class was walking up to him, dragging her parents behind her. "Henry what are you doing here?"

"Miss Bartlett, how're you, just catching up on my summer reading."

"Oh, what?" she asked quickly grabbing the book

"Susan!" admonished the woman behind her with the same blonde hair.

"I'm sorry," the thin, and seemingly very tall man said from the other side of his daughter, "We're John and Elizabeth Bartlett."

"Henry Potter," Harry replied, offering his hand, "and it's alright."

"And how do you know our daughter then Mister Potter? I don't think I recognize you from her school," John asked, curious about the small mystery before him.

"No, but we both attend the same dance class on Wednesday nights."

"Yes, Henry is one of the only boys in the class, and he doesn't step on our toes nearly as much as some of the other boys," Susan added, "What's this? A school book?" she asked practically throwing the offensive thing towards the boy.

"Yup, just getting ready for next term."

"But that's weeks away, and we'll just learn it all then."

"So that he will have an easier time at school, it wouldn't hurt you to crack open a book this summer," her father answered coming to the boy's defense, before turning to the boy who looked to have caught his daughter's interest "So you are also learning ball room dancing then Henry, how did you parents convince you to do that?"

"Actually it was one of my teachers at school, he noticed that I tend to keep to myself and said it would be a good way to meet people I don't normally interact with. A chance to work on socializing without making any mistakes in front of people I have to be around for the next few years."

"Ah and how is that working out for you?"

"Well I seem to have a decent rapport with some of the girls at least," Harry said jokingly looking at Mr. Bartlett, who let out a small chuckle himself.

"So what do your parents do Henry?" Mrs. Bartlett asked, looking at the eleven year old boy who was all on his own at four thirty in the middle of London.

"Actually ma'am I'm an orphan," the boy replied matter-of-factly, hoping that revelation would be the end of it.

"Oh, I'm sorry lad," John said, quickly trying to brush aside his wife's unintentional faux pas.

Shortly after that exchange the Bartlett's were on their way, leaving the young boy to go back to his book, and enjoy his birthday. A birthday he was loving, especially since the Dursleys had ordered him not to come home until at least 10:30 tonight due to some sort of dinner party the whale was having.

That was why at seven Harry was sitting in an out of the way corner of the Leaky Cauldron, enjoying their delicious Roast Beef with Yorkshire Pudding, when his meal was disturbed by the sudden appearance of a house elf.

The creature, dressed in a dirty dish towel, looked extremely skinny and frail as it stared at the boy for a few seconds before making a slow formal bow.

"err...hello?" Harry said not quite sure what the protocol was with these elves.

"Mr. Potter sir! So glad is Dobby to be meetings you," The now extremely animated being said in a high pitched sqeek, as if someone had suddenly injected it with a syringe full of sugar.

"Hello Dobby, how can I help you?"

"How can youse help me? The Great Harry Potter is asking to help poor Dobby!" before the boy knew it, the elf had thrown himself forward and was now hugging Harry's arm.

"Your welcome," Harry interjected quickly trying to get the whole awkward meeting over with as fast as possible, "now why did you come to see me?"

"Sir, Dobby has come to warn the great wizard, youse must not return to Hogywarts!"

"Why?"

"A great evil is beings unleashed!"

"Listen, it's not that bad, I promise you, Spotted Dick is completely harmless, it just has an unfortunate name for a dessert."

This statement caused the elf to stop, whatever he had expected to here, that obviously wasn't it.

"No Great Harry Potter Sir, Dobby has been listening. Theyse is planning something."

"What are you talking about Dobby?" an exasperated Harry asked as he put down his fork.

"Dobby cannot say, Dobby must punishes himself enough as already for warning the Great Harry Potter!"

"Why?"

"For betraying Family's plans, Dobby is a bad house elf, but Dobby doesn't care," the little being said in a voice and stance that showed great determination.

"Well... thank you for the information Dobby, but I don't exactly have much choice in the whole thing."

"But sir could stay home, and be safe, safes as houses!"

"So what, what about everyone else? Anyway, if there is a threat to the school shouldn't you be telling Sparkles?" the boy asked

"I cannot go to Dumblydore, You is a child, and am warning you not to go, not working against Family. If I tell Dumblydore, am telling enemy of Family. Am working against Family, break the house elf magic, and die!"

'Wow, I am going to need to look into these house elves,' Harry thought as he took in what the creature was saying, "But why are you telling me this instead of any of the other kids?"

"Because you is Harry Potter! We house elves still tell stories of dark times. We see beginnings of dark times coming again, then we hear how Great Harry Potter defeats new dark lord. We know dark lord not dead, but he defeated. You must be protected to defeat dark lord again, or dark times come back."

"But what kind of hero can I be if I let my mates get hurt of killed by this plot of your family?"

"Your Mates? Mates who don't even write Harry Potter?" the elf said in a strangely knowledgeable tone.

"we're children, and the summer hols is only a little over 2 months, who would write letters, for that?... Why," asked Harry with a small chuckle, "have you been stealing my mail?"

Before he could be stopped the little creature let out a wail and dashed over the textbook on the table to start bashing his head into the wall next to the table, until Harry grabbed the small thing by the back of its tea towel, and picked him up away from the wall, and started to shake some sense into him.

"Enough of that, you'll bloody up the wood, and losing brain cells doesn't help anybody!", the boy barked in an attempt to get through to the elf, and control his anger over the uncovered thefts, "Now, why don't you go and fetch my mail."

"Yes sir," a very contrite and dizzy Dobby said before popping out of existence.

'Wow! Who the hell steals an eleven year old's mail?' the boy thought in the thirty seconds he had to himself before the mad elf returned, this time hidden behind a medium sized stack of letters, and a package, in that thick rice based wrapping paper he could recognize in an instant, Naruto had been writing to him!

"Listen Dobby, I need to return, I can't stay here, my relatives wont let me, heck, the government wont let me," Harry said as he thought back to the news the night before about the police's new truancy initiative, "But I can keep my eyes open, and if you find out anything that can help me, that you can tell me without hurting yourself, I would appreciate it if you would let me know, but Don't hide my mail!" Harry said his voice quiet but the emotion in the words plain for the elf to hear.

"NO, Harry Potter must swear not to go back to Hogywarts!"

"And if I dont!"

"I have ways, I can make it look like you did magic, outside of school, they expel you for that, then Harry Potter is safe!"

The statement caused a small laugh in the twelve year old boy, "you know Dobby, if I didn't know better I might be frightend by that threat," the boy said picking up his wand and with a word and a small flick lifted his glass up to his lips, "but I know how that works, they won't notice my magic being done."

The sight of the boy flagrantly ignoring the underage restrictions on magic seemed to take the wind of the poor house elf's sails, before it pendulously, and with a slightly defeated look nodded its head, and disappeared.

* * *

Notes:

**Suiton-Himitsu-Kabe-No-Jutsu **- Water based Privacy technique - litteraly translated = Water Secrecy Wall Jutsu


	2. Chapter 2: That Time Again

Disclaimer: I own neither Harry Potter nor Naruto, nor any of the characters, and concepts associated with them.

'words' = thoughts "words" = spoken "words" = spoken by monster, or used for emphasis. "words" = foreign language (e.g. Parseltongue, French or Gobbledygook)

Disclaimer: I own neither Harry Potter nor Naruto, nor any of the characters, and concepts associated with them.'words' = thoughts "words" = spoken "words" = spoken by monster, or used for emphasis. "words" = foreign language (e.g. Parseltongue, French or Gobbledygook)

Chapter 2, That time again.

"Naruto, get off the damn pond," Misu shouted from the shore as she watched the annoying blonde jogging in place on the largest body of water in Konoha, then moving to jumping jacks, obviously fully enjoying his chakra exercise. "Hurry up or we'll get stuck with another D rank mission again."

"Alright, alright, I'm coming" the boy said as he slowed down and started to walk back."

"Naruto, Watch Out" the startled teammate screamed as she pointed behind him, her face full of alarm.

"Wha..." the boy asked turning quickly, unfortunately the distraction had caused a loss of concentration, and once again the blond dropped into the water, while Misu roled on the ground, laughing on the dry shore.

"That was not funny," the genin said after coming up sputtering to the surface.

"Yes..it..was" she said gasping for breathe.

...

"Naruto why are you soaking wet?" Hamaki asked as he stared at the blond boy, whose presence had been announced by the squelching of his clothes as he jogged up to the Hokage Tower, "and more importantly, you're both late" he said to the two genin who had finally decided to show up.

"Sorry Hamaki-sensei, I lost concentration again when I was practicing water walking," his words once more causing Misu to break out into giggles.

"Naruto you should have that down by now," Hamaki said sternly, causing the boy to blush with embarrassment and start scratching the back of his head, "alright team, It seems like there are a bunch of bandits somewhere between Tanzaku and Yajirushi village. Meet at the gate in an hour, we can get a good start on the road this afternoon, Naruto don't forget to grab some dry clothes before we leave."

"Hai Sensei" all the chorused before rushing off to prepare.

.

...

.

Ok that is far enough for today, let's camp here. " the jonin declared, a statement that met with relief as all three children dropped their packs and immediately went about the regular drill of setting up camp. Makoto started to gather firewood, Misu ran to fill the canteens from a nearby stream, and Naruto got busy setting up the tents. Before Naruto could drive home the first peg though he was stopped by their sensei.

"None of that now, we aren't setting up camp this trip."

"What do you mean sensei" asked a shocked Misu.

"Camping on the side of the road is fine when we are moving in a convoy, and when you were fresh out of the academy and didn't know the difference between a senbon and a kunai. But not any longer. So we'll set up camp properly."

"What do'ya mean properly?"

"We are Ninja, and what are the three trademarks of a good ninja?" the older man asked his pupils, as he lead them through another lesson.

"Stealth Speed, and killing the enemy before they know we're there." the three students replied in a sing song voice that let their teacher know they were bored of this particular mantra.

"Exactly, and camping in a clearing right on the side of the path is damn obvious."

"So we move away from the road, and build bivouacs, using only a grounds sheet and a top sheet covered in local vegetation really close to the ground then," Makoto said remembering some of the different types of shelter they had been shown in the academy.

"Good answer, moving off the road is a must, and setting up a hidden bivouacs, is a good idea, but you need more than one move in your bag of tricks because..."

"... If we know it they know it," the trio singsonged again.

"Exactly," their sensei said with a chuckle, "so for this trip we are eating cold ration bars and sleeping in the trees."

"What do you mean sleeping in trees?" Misu asked in a surprised tone that rose at least an octave.

"What do you mean cold rations?" demanded Naruto going even higher up the scale.

"I mean you go up the tree, find a strong limb and tie your hammocks to it tightly so that there is almost no room between the hammock and tree, get in, and tighten it some more so that the branch just looks a little fatter, then go to sleep. Just remember to eat before you get in the hammock, and to use a knot that you can easily adjust to allow yourself to get in and out easily."

"What?"

"In the summer, you'll hidden by the leaves, in the winter, it will look like a fat limb, and if you're lucky it might snow, further disguising you, and reducing the chance someone looks up... Oh, and make sure to tie yourself to the underside so that if a ninja comes by, tree jumping he might land on one of the two ropes by pure dumb luck, but they are less likely to hit that than a human body, so they may run right over the limb and not even notice you."

"Hold on, what are we going to do about the watch schedule?"

"Once you've got your sensory skills up to snuff, you might be able to keep watch from your hammock, so long as you remember not to fall asleep, otherwise you need to get out of it and patrol, then get back into your hammock. Just take note of where your teammates are so that you know where to go to warn them, or wake them up when your shift is done."

With much grumbling the three got their hammocks out. They normally only carried them because they were part of the standard equipment list, with the potential to double as nets in case they ever need to use them for a trap, in fact this would be Misu's first time sleeping in one since that one time she had tried it out in her backyard soon after buying it, however eventually with a bit of help from Makoto and Naruto she was ready, and the three genin had their night's accommodations arranged. Naruto, winner of this missions rock, paper, scissors tournament, had taken first watch, and so was tasked with laying the traps, giving him an opportunity to explore the surrounding forest.

The next morning, after a breakfast of ration bars, the team took off again, once more bounding from limb to limb as they moved through the trees.

Around noon they had arrived to within 5 miles of the area where the bandits were known to work. The squad stopped for lunch, and changed modes, now moving silently and carefully through the area, stalking their prey. The bad guys were somewhere out here, now they just had to find them.

by 8 o'clock that night, as the sun was starting to set, Misu finally found something, a trail was clearly visible where the bandits had left this side road, and moved with their loot into the forest. 20 minutes later she was back at the meeting spot the team had designated, waiting to see what else the team had come up with, taking the time to set up her hammock, getting ready for the night.

When the rest of the squad showed up Misu enjoyed the slight feeling of superiority that came with being the only one with something to report. It meant they were most likely only dealing with one camp, or at least the camps were in the same area. Either way they would find out tomorrow, it was too late to search tonight, the light wasn't good enough to move without running the risk of setting off any booby traps.

Day three came bright and early, after another cold meal of ration bars, by Kami Naruto could not wait for some ramen, the team took off to the tracks Misu found, and spent the next three hours carefully and quietly following them back to the bandit camp. The criminals had set up shop in a large clearing, with no obvious rhyme or reason behind the laying out of the camp, outside of the bare minimum. Sixteen tents littered the area, the only clear ground being in the south east corner, which if the smell was anything to go by was being used as the camp latrine. Team 14 had been on these missions a time or two before, and so Makoto and Misu quickly took first watch, setting up on different sides of the camp to keep an eye on the raiders, while Hamaki and Naruto made sure no one snuck up on them, trading out jobs with their opposite number every hour to make sure no one got bored and missed anything.

The outlaws were obviously celebrating something, they drank all day as they sat around a large, unlit, fire pit, members getting up every now and then to either use the south east corner, feed themselves from the goat that was roasting on a separate smaller fire, or refilling one of the communal jugs from a pot that sat next to the still set up off to the side.

These guys obviously had some high tolerance level, because 11 O'Clock saw several of them still drinking and carrying on, while team 14 met to discuss their plans. "Jeez those people stink," Naruto said as he dropped out of the tree next to the rest of his squad."

"Well at least this is gonna be a breeze, those guys are so drunk, even if one wakes up tonight, they wont be able to put up much of a fight," Makoto replied, twirling a kunai around his middle finger. Hamaki frowned at that, these genin were getting a little cocky. Being comfortable in your abilities was one thing, but overconfidence led to mistakes, of course the problem was that they hadn't really run into anything they couldn't handle yet, mainly thanks to proper planning, and taking their time, just like they had done today.

The plan was simple, the trio would approach from the north east, the idea being that anyone who woke up would be going to the bathroom, and so would be facing away from them. They would then go tent by tent, through the camp doing what needed to be done, as silently as possible.

It wasn't a fun job, but you steeled your stomach, and just got it done as quickly as possible, one throat, then the next. You tried not to think about the last one, just on the job at hand, and double checking to make sure no one had forgotten anyone. Hand over the mouth, blade across the throat, remove hand, and move onto the next one... Yeah it wasn't fun, but it was better than the alternative, so far the team had only suffered some broken bones from encounters but of the 5 teams from his class that had passed their genin test, Naruto was one of 2 that was still active in their entirety, with one team wiped out completely, and the two others combining into one after a run of bad luck.

Fortunately for the genin, the one thing that had been drilled into them incessantly since being taken on by Hamaki-sensei was stealth, the number of nights they had spent creeping through woods trying to remain undetected seemed uncountable at this stage, the afternoons learning how to supress their chakra signature, something that surprisingly came easy to Naruto even though his control was horrible, were almost as numerous. All this meant that twenty five minutes later they were all done, meeting back up at the rally point with all three kids dealing with the shakes as the adrenalin left their system.

...

"Hey Sensei, do you think I should start learning kenjutsu?" Naruto asked as he waved around a sword from the pile of equipment the two had made while they were disposing of the bodies, a lengthy process which involved first checking to see if any were recognized as someone with a bounty, while stripping them of their possessions, then disposing of the bodies, which due to the temperate climate they were in meant burying them.

"I would hope you had already started" Hamaki said as he finished the doton jutsu, taking care of the last of the remains, "How are you going to defend yourself properly against someone with a weapon if you aren't familiar with the ways to use it. Also you never know when you might need to use it yourself, I mean there is a reason that ANBU normally carry a tanto or a kodachi."

"Wow" the boy thought, as he quickly started to seal the equipment away, intending to go through it when he got back to Konoha, 'always more to learn' Naruto thought as that truism hit him once again, and he realized how little he really knew.

..

* * *

..

The letter had finally arrived the day after his birthday. 'About bloody time!'' the boy thought as he opened the envelope, 'school starts in a damn month.' From what George Thornby the manager of Flourish and Blotts had said they always waited this long. No reason why, in fact according to a discussion he had had with some of the portraits the syllabus hadn't changed since the educational reforms of 1538, in fact the only thing that had happened was that there were now less subjects being taught. Neither the standards nor the requirements had increased, kids now just had more time to go over the same material that used to make up, for the average Owl student, 2/3rds of the classes available.

Harry's mental diatribe came to an abrupt stop as his eyes focused on the book requirements for DADA. He had gone to the bookstore at the beginning of the summer, and asked what the standards books were for 2nd year so that he could read a page or two, or even a chapter or so whenever he wanted something new to study besides the stuff for his GCSEs, the same way he took his science books to Hogwarts. But someone had decided to completely redo the Defense Against Dark Arts material, using that vain clot, Gildroy Lockhart. Harry had asked about them when he came across the books in the Defenses section of the bookstore. George, a committed bibliophile had said there was something fishy about them, and had wanted to put them in Fiction, except he had no concrete proof, and one of his female assistants had thrown a fit for daring to impugne her Gilly's honour. 'What kind of buffoon wants us to read this?' Harry thought, 'Damn it must be the complete set! Well while I'm back there I should at least see if I can find anything for Naruto's birthday,' Harry thought as looked over the rest of the 2nd year shopping list, making a note of what else he needed to pick up.

.

...

.

That Saturday Harry got off the knight bus wearing jeans and a navy blue hoodie turned up to hide his scar, to find the alley was packed. All the students descended like a plague, or, from the shops point of view, like a thunderstorm in the dessert. The nice sunny day, mixed with the recent send out of everyone's school letter meant that there was a line to get into the alley from the Pub side, and once he got there, he encountered an even bigger throng. There wasn't a table free at Fortescue's, the crowd in front of Quality Quidditch Supplies was already 4 deep. Watching as everyone pressed his and her nose against the glass to take in the new Nimbus 2001, 'Damn that reminds me, Rupert wants me to try out for quidditch this year. Well I guess it's decision time.'

Harry found a quiet corner to duck into and no matter what logical arguments he came up with the decision came down to two factors, Rupert who had always been there for him wanted the boy to try out, and flying is just so cool'.

Inside he found a well lit shop, the walls behind the counter covered with Cleansweeps, Comets and Nimbuses, the shelves were stuffed full with the different pads necessary to play the rough game, racks had jerseys for every professional team in the British isles, and in the corner stood the trunks holding all the balls necessary for the game. The store was packed as children grabbed the jersey of their favorite player and ran around begging their father to buy them, and hopeful kids tried to convince their mother that they needed a full set of the most expensive keeper pads, "'cause this is my year mum, I just know it."

Finally after looking around, examining the different things a young man in a standard black robe, with the store logo emblazoned on the pocket walked up to him, "Good morning, are you being served".

"Thanks, hello, I need a new broom and the standard quidditch equipment."

"Not a problem, what position do you play?"

"Well I'm hoping for seeker or chaser."

"all right then let's see what we can do for you."

the man paused, suddenly taking a half step back as he recognized the young customer, and a small gleam appeared in his eye, "well for brooms we of course have the new top of the line Nimbus 2001. Fastest broom on the market, perfect for dashing across the fields after a snitch, or for shooting past the competition with the quaffle," the man said as he led the boy over to the in store display of Nimbus' newest creation, complete with a broom hovering against a background that seemed to whiz by.

"How does it handle?"

"Well in order to move that quickly, you have to sacrifice a little handling, but anytime you lose taking a corner, you can make up for in straight flying."

"But it still has a really wide turning radius," Harry said thinking back to some of the discussions he had overheard the other boys at the salle having about motor racing.

"Yes, that is one of the sacrifices one has to make for the sake of speed," the man agreed slowly coming to realize he wasn't going to make the sale and deciding to change tactics, "if your looking for something better for things like the Wronski feint, nothing beets a Comet, that Horton-Keitch Braking Charm is still the best one in the business, and they came out with their response to the Nimbus 2000 this year with the Comet 300. It doesn't have the top speed though of the Nimbus 2001 or the 2000"

"But on a quidditch pitch do I really have the space to get up to the 75 MPH that the 2001 is claiming?" Harry asked looking at the display.

"Well I suppose not at the school level no," the clerk replied a little sheepishly, "but that isn't the only time to be on a broom, sometimes it is good just to fly around, feel the wind pushing against you as you hit the faster speeds."

"Sorry I live in the muggle world most of the time, I don't have the space to fly at home."

"Fair enough" the man said as he realized that he wasn't going to sell his most expensive broom to this customer.

"So I think I will take the Comet 300, and now a general set of pads."

"Right, do you have a color preference between the brown or the black leather?"

"I suppose the brown would be better"

"well then you'll need wrist guards, and a chest protector" the man said as he handed the boy the different pieces of equipment, taking a second to size the boy up as he held up a chest piece against the boy, before grabbing a few of the shoulder pads that buckled onto the chest piece."

"I'd also like one of those helmets," Harry said pointing to the leather scrum caps that were stacked on another shelf. Harry had seen that only about a third of the players at school wore one, mainly the girls, but why lose brain cells when you didn't have to?

"All right."

Twenty minutes later, after trying on a few minutes of trying on different things to make sure they fit Harry heading out the door. The process had taken a little longer than he would have liked, but, in between the decency of the clerk not announcing his presence, and the his salesmanship the man had up-sold Harry a broom cleaning and oiling kit, and a maintenance kit before he shrunk the boy's purchases and walked him to the door. With his new broom and quidditch supplies now stored away into the pocket of his hoodie Harry moved onto the next thing on the agenda, picking up those stupid books from George's.

Flourish and Blotts was even more packed than Harry had expected, 'doesn't look like I'll be able to browse at all,' He thought as he joined the line of other prospective buyers waiting to even enter the establishment. The reason for all this soon became clear as a poster advertising the clot was doing a signing today, 'of all the days why today?' Harry questioned as he pulled his hood up and hoped he could get through the whole thing unnoticed.

Upon entering the establishment the scene was even worse. The place was packed, between the adoring fans, the children getting ready for school, and for some reason the press one could hardly move. One member of staff was permanently running the register, the second was standing around an overdressed ponce whose face adorned posters all around the outside of the bookshop, Gildroy Lockhart apparently required his own gofer around him in case he needed a cup of tea, after all he couldn't be expected to leave his adoring fans. Luckily George hadn't gotten sucked into that himself, however he was the only person available to help people find the books they might need. Looking around the store Potter also took note of the number of people he recognized, from school moving around the shop, the Weasley twins were standing with the rest of the their family, their mother's eyes glazed over as she stared at the fop signing autographs. Across from her though was Hermione Granger, sporting the exact same expression, something he hadn't expected to see. Around the rest of the shop was a mix of other students, from all four houses, but none of his friends or close acquaintances.

"Hello Mr. Thornby," the muggle dressed boy said to the aging shopkeeper.

"Harry!" the old man said enthusiastically correctly identifying the voice under the hood, "what can I do for you today?"

"I just need those Lockhart books, I'm guessing you know they are now required reading at school."

"Yup, you know they say that DADA position is cursed, I think Dumbledore just likes to hire idiots, even the first years have to buy the complete set."

"He had them all put in the display cases around him, wanted a chance to greet all his fans."

"Great, you don't happen to have a couple in the back do you? Or is it possible for you to owl me the set later?"

"I'd be happy to Harry, but you'd have to take down your mail wards."

"My what?"

"Your mail wards."

"What's that?"

"You mean they never told you about them?"

"Someone put a ward on you to stop mail finding you, that's why whenever someone tries to send you anything the owl always comes back with the letter it left with."

"But what about my Hogwarts letter, or the letters I received from people over the summer?"

"I guess someone must have altered them then."

'Dumbledore" Harry thought as he put all the pieces together, "Oh well, I'll send Hedwig, she always seems to find me," he said thinking of his snowy owl, who liked to rest near him, "can I pay for the books now?"

"Sure Harry, just go to the till and tell Jennifer to make a note of it, and send your owl with a note on Monday and we'll load her up."

"Thanks" Harry said, receiving a smile and a nod in response for the old man, on his way to get in line to pay.

A four minute wait in line at the till was all it took in the crammed shop, and he was free, quickly exiting the building, he headed to the potion shop. He had hardly walked more than a few feet before literally bumping into Leanne, followed by a mound of packages, that he assumed hid her parents.

"Harry!" the girl squealed, as he tried to apologise to her, something that was completely ignored as she threw her arms around him, "Mum, Dad, I want you to meet a school friend, this is Harry Potter.

"Mrs. Church, Mr. Churc.."

the boy started to say, until, "Oh My God Harry what did you do to your hair?" the girl asked as she stared at his head, as the hood had fallen off. Causing the raven haired boy to blush as he ran his hands through, or really over, what little hair he had left.

"New look, decided to go with a High and Tight, why, do you think it looks good?"

"No!" she said very firmly, "and why would you do it?"

"Less to clean," Harry replied, as he put his hood back up, the haircut had happened about two weeks ago after Mr. Burroughs had been showing him take down techniques, and hair pulling was a damned effective way to expose the throat!

Before he knew it the two badgers started catching up as Leanne launched into her summer tales about her parents taking her on a trip to the coast, touring the Royal Pavilion, and the Palace Pier in Brighton.

The two carried on for a few minutes before suddenly the sounds of a fight could be heard inside the bookshop, and five minutes later the Weasleys walked out, the Matriarch of the family loudly berating her husband.

"By the way I wouldn't go in there if I were you, Gildroy Lockhart is doing a signing, and the place is packed," Harry said eventually when the father took advantage in the break in the conversation to point out that they needed to get a move on. However the statement seemed to have the completely opposite effect than he had thought, as the girl's eyes widened noticeably, and she immediately left him, without so much as a wave, let alone a goodbye to dive into the shop. With a shake of his head the boy headed off to finish his shopping.

..

* * *

..

A knock on the door pulled the old man's attention away from the mountains of scrolls that littered his large desk, as a dainty woman called from the door that was now partially open. "Hokage-sama the four jonins you asked for are here."

"Ah, thank you Hiroko-chan, send them in please."

Ah, Hamaki-san, Yasuo-san, Naboru-san, Fumi-san, thank you for coming over so quickly," he said getting up and moving around the desk and pointing the jonin to the chairs set up to make a small lounge section of the office. "Something has come up, and your teams are going to be needed for a special assignment."

"Sir you have only to order," Yasuo said solemnly (he was the youngest of the group).

"Although I have to wonder what four teams of genin can do that your ANBU or even a couple of squads of chunin couldn't," Makoto added with a small chuckle at the other jonin.

"Well the Council are sticking their noses into things again," Sarutobi said as the secretary came in wheeling a tea tray, "As you know the newest batch of genin graduated from the academy today."

"So that's why all the bunting was put up," Naboru said in fake surprise as he took the proffered cup of tea.

"Just so, just so," the old man said lighting his pipe while his own tea cooled beside him. "However unlike normal, this one is special. Not only does it contain the last Uchiha, but also the heirs of the clan heads of the Yamanaka, the Nara, the Akimichi, the Hyuga and the Aburame, and it also contains the youngest child of Inuzuka Tsume."

"Wow, almost every Ninja clan in Konoha seems to be represented. I pity their Jonin instructors, with all the crap they'll have to deal with."

"Exactly, and because of that every wealthy civilian family, or member of the civilian council who has a child their age sent them to the academy so they could hobnob with the future elites of the village. All this has in turn meant that I am getting a lot of pressure in the team assignments, and that the council wanted to make sure that their precious little miracle wont get too badly hurt while they are off 'playing hero'.''

at this statement a quick mirrored flash of anger appeared on the faces of all five shinobi as the thing they had given most of their lives to was once again characterized so cheaply.

.

...

.

At their regular training ground three kids were sweating as they moved through sword forms while they waited for their sensei. Upon their return from the bandit mission the genin of team 14 had banded together and hired Hayate Gekko, one of the better swordsmen in Konoha to start teaching them the basics for 3 hours a day, twice a week. It was damned expensive, but special training from skilled craftsman always is, and the man had given them a great deal by only charge them 1 day's worth of a B rank mission per month. The only annoying thing from the genin's point of view though was that they weren't allowed to use real swords. Gekko-sensei had insisted that until he said they were ready they could only use bokken, and weren't allowed to take swords with them on missions until he or Hamaki-sensei told them otherwise.

"Switch," Yelled out Misu as all three started again from the beginning with the swords now in their other hands.

Half way through their drill a kunai flew in from outside, a slight hissing sound giving away the tag wrapped around it, causing all three to immediately take cover, either by kawarimi, or by simply running and diving behind the nearest tree. Half a second later the tag went off with a blinding light and a loud bang but no other real damage, and Hamaki was standing right where the makeshift flash-bang had gone off.

"Sensei, what the hell," Naruto asked as he stood up, dusted himself off, and came out from behind the tree that had provided his cover.

"Just keeping you on your toes, and Naruto, diving behind the nearest cover without looking may save you from the explosive tag, but a good ninja might have backup waiting there, give me five laps for moving blindly," the old man said, earning a grumble from his blonde haired student as he broke into a sprint.

a few minutes later Naruto joined the group again, "done sensei."

"Good, now catch," he said throwing a small bundle to each student.

The bundles turned out to be black cotton balaclavas.

"What's this for Hamaki-sensei?"

"What a teacher can't buy his students a gift?" the older ninja asked, his voice filled with fake hurt, "I can't just be proud of my team and want to give them a present on their anniversary?"

"What are you talking about Sensei?"

"Why don't you know?" the jonin asked, a smile betraying the enjoyment he was getting out of the situation as all three of his students shook their heads. "One year ago today, all three of you passed you Genin exams."

"Wha...It can't be," Naruto said.

"No, he's right, and a week from today will be the anniversary of becoming a team," Makoto declared with a smile at the realization.

"So you got us these?" the boy asked holding up what turned out to be cotton balaclavas, obviously not impressed by the gift.

"What, you don't like it?" their sensei asked, his voice once again seemingly filled with fake misery.

"Sensei why did you give them to us," Makoto asked, hoping to move things along.

"Why? Because they're stylish and cool, they are multipurpose awesome garments, they can be used to cover the head and face, like a mask, and other times you can fold it up and use it as a hat," Hamaki said, waiving at the three students to try them on. "Listen," he said after thirty seconds, his voice turning serious, "You kids are getting better and we are taking tougher and tougher missions, and coming home alive and with all our limbs, and that is down to two reasons, your skills, and a lot of luck. Now your skills are going to continue to improve, especially if you keep up this training in your spare time, but your luck isn't always going to be there. But what we can do is increase our chances," the man said, taking a moment to let his words sink in.

"One of the ways we've gotten lucky so far is that the intelligence we had when going on a mission turned out to be fairly true, make no mistake, this is a rarity that wont always be the case, in fact if anything it means that we are due for some bad luck soon. Also if we start taking tougher missions we are more likely to get noticed by informants for other villages, and that means ending up in Bingo books. So I got you the balaclavas. These are only to be worn outside the village, when on missions, except escort missions, inside the village you keep them hidden and out of sight.

"Why's that sensei?"

"Bingo book entries are only useful if they can match a specific ninja with a set of skills. If on a mission, everyone looks sort of the same as far as clothes, and your faces are always covered then how do they know which ninja has which skills. And so long as you wear different clothes at home, the spies inside the village cant match a group of ninja with a mission."

"Spies inside the village?"

"You've got to be kidding sensei!"

"You don't think we have spies in Suna, or Kumo or Iwa? What do you think the intelligence department is for?"

"Sure sensei, we have , but were better than those guys," Naruto stated with a sense of civic pride.

The remark though only earned him a quick smack on the head, "don't be an idiot Naruto!"

"Is the balaclava and changing our clothes going to be enough to disguise us, and why not on escort missions?" Misu asked as another bit of innocence was stripped away, and another factor of life as a shinobi was unveiled, with the realization that even in Konoha they might not be 100% safe.

"Well actually it is a step that most ninja don't even bother with, so it might be a bit over the top, but better safe than sorry, and on escort missions, the people we are guarding need to know who we are, it also helps throw off the informants if they can identify us on some missions and not others, that way they know what they should be looking for so those guys in masks can't be us, right!"

"Is it safe to train here sensei?" Makoto asked, now looking around, trying to spot any would be spies in the trees.

"That's just one of those risks we have to take, although it is also why so many ninja clans have their own training grounds inside their compounds, it's also why the training grounds are kept separate from the rest of the village. Any civilian found in this area is automatically escorted out by the ANBU responsible for this sector."

"ANBU, I haven't seen any ANBU!"

"You're not meant to!" The jonin replied with a small chuckle, "Remember you guys are good at moving quietly and spotting hidden traps, for genin a year out of the academy. ANBU are all chunin or higher who excel in moving stealthily and not beeing seen. However, there is good news, you're going to get better."

"More stealth training this week sensei?"

"You Betcha! Also were going to be doing more missions that require it. Today as I said earlier is your one year aniversary right? Which means that the next graduating class just got their Hitai-ates' today."

"Which means we aren't the youngest genin anymore! Yatta!" shouted Naruto jumping into the air, his right fist pumping in excitement.

"Don't kid yourself Naruto, you might still be the youngest, or at least the most immature," Makoto said laughing at his teammates actions.

"Right, however, unlike you guys this class is full of VIPs, children of members of the council and such."

"VIPs? What VIPs?"

"How about almost every clan heir in Konoha, along with the children of every council member?"

"Oh."

"Exactly, which leads us to the reason why we are going to up our Stealth training. We and a few other genin teams have been tasked with shadowing the new VIPs when they leave the village on missions. Our job is to make sure these people don't get too hurt."

"Too hurt? Well its glad to know that the Hokage cares about some of us. Did we have those minders when we went on our first mission?"

"No, this is a very rare circumstance. Although I'm sure the PR department is over the moon."

"The PR department?"

"Yeah, Remember those questions I asked you the first day?" Hamaki asked, receiving blank looks in reply, "Okay, who is the White Fang?"

"He was a big deal during the second shinobi war," Naruto answered right away, "but I never heard what happened to him after that," he said as he thought back to some of the scrolls he had read in the library, "anyway what does that have to do with this PR department?"

"I'm getting to that, what about Senju Tsunade?"

"You mean Konoha's Slug Princess, she's one of the Sanin," Misu said with stars in her eyes.

"My father calls her the Legendary Sucker," added Makoto, only to receive a punch in the gut from Misu for sullying her idol.

"What about the Gamma Sanin?"

"Sure he's the other Sanin, What's this about Hamaki-sensei?"

"Good, now, those guys were or are all famous ninja, famous all over the elemental countries, mainly because of how good they are, but also because of the Konoha PR department!" Hamaki said, taking a second to see if any of them starting to put things together. "The department is the organization responsible for letting people know how great Konoha is. When ninja who could be seen to be deserving of special recognition show up, either because of their family, or because they are considered prodigies, this organization tells the world that everything these guys does is the best, if they cooked rice in the morning, well would you believe it, it was the best rice in the world, and they did it while fighting a hundred foreign ninja at the same time, and delivering a client's baby, that sort of thing, it's how you build legends."

"What? Sensei that's ridiculous!"

"That's life, we have the Sanin, and Hatake Kakashi, Kiri has the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist, and so on, and of course you have all the famous ninja clans, each with their own special skills and techniques... All this means, that with the number of VIPs graduating this year, the PR department is going into overdrive, each clan heir is going to be seen as almost the second coming of Kami, that way the clans and the village gain prestige. These kids are going to be given very public missions, where they can be seen to excel, and Konoha can be seen to produce the best ninja the world has ever seen... It also means that the council wants to make sure that their precious people are kept safe, so we're one of the teams who need to act as a safety net, and shadow them."

"What do you mean by shadow them sensei?"

"We have to follow them on missions, and make sure they don't get too hurt, or even worse, dead. Provide back up if things go bad, or if it looks like they're going to run into a group to large for them to handle, to thin out the ranks a bit before they show up, preferably without them knowing were there."

"Why can't they know we're there?"

"A couple of reasons, firstly they're young and dumb and might tell someone, ruining the image, and secondly, part of being a super ninja, is acting like a super ninja, using big flashy jutsus, defeating all comers with the greatest of ease, and having that arrogant assurance of knowing that you're the best... They'll be told eventually, normally when they make chunin, but in the meantime everyone, including themselves, gets to think they walk on water, not because they've mastered water walking, but because water itself is so in awe of their presence that it considers it its duty to support them."

"Sensei, that sucks!"

"Welcome to politics."

* * *

"Dum da dee dum..." Harry was humming the tune to Dad's Army as he packed his trunk. Justin's television addiction had really opened the dark haired boy's eyes to a wealth of great movies and shows. "Let's see, socks, check, underwear, check, shirts, check, quidditch gear... check," he said as he went through his mental checklist to make sure nothing was forgotten, it wasn't like he could trust his relatives to send him anything he forgot.

It was a good thing he had packed the night before, because the next morning found him sleeping in, at least compared to his regular schedule. Which was how eight fifteen found him summoning the Knight Bus, still damp from the morning shower, only just completing his exercises in time, and starving for breakfast. Unfortunately respite was not going to come fast. It was back to school day, and it seemed like this was apparently the busiest day of the year for the bus, which had to make several stops before dropping a large gang of people off at King's Cross. Then a second stumbling block emerged, it was back to school day, not just for Hogwarts, but, judging by the train station, for every public school in England. The station was packed, not just with people, but with the large heavy luggage (like his own trunk) that such forays came with. By the time Harry had managed to fight through the crowd to the fast food stall and received his order, he only had fifteen minutes to catch the Hogwart's Express, a time that was down to ten as he jogged towards the barrier...

**_CRASH..._**

The portal hadn't let him through. Something had blocked him getting on the train that was now leaving in seven minutes. However this was no longer the focus of Harry's thoughts, as he furiously rubbed his stomach where the handle bar from the trolley had rammed into him, and held back the tears in his eyes that threatened to drip. The boy then noticed the other effect of the crash, the several hundred people who upon hearing the noise had turned to stare at the event, much like when a waiter or waitress drops a plate of food on accident in a restaurant, several people were even doing the clapping thing.

Harry continued to rub his stomach for a few more seconds, hoping to rub away some of the pain, and give himself something to do while the rest of the station returned to whatever it was they had been doing before, he righted his trunk, and then started to tentatively tap the wall. He tried different parts of it, the middle, the sides, down near the ground, and up as high as he could reach, but everywhere he prodded, he found brick. The portal wasn't there. Harry spent the next fifteen minutes jumping between examining the wall, and waiting for people to exit out of it before giving up. With a deep sigh though the boy wheeled the cart through the throng, and outside until he finally found an empty parking lot, where he could summon the bus.

"Welcome to the Knight Bus..."

"Hy again Stan," the boy replied cutting off the man's opening spiel.

"Harry, you should be on the train, what are you doing here?"

"Something went wrong with the barrier, it wouldn't let me through."

"Something wrong with the barrier? Never heard of that happening before."

"Well I guess there's a first time for everything" Harry replied, a tad angrily, and still feeling where the bar had dug into him, "anyway, I need a ride to Hogwarts."

"Sure thing, should take about forty five minutes."

Stan was as good as his word, and less than an hour later they pulled in front of the castle. Changing into his robes on the bus had been a fun experience, especially with the way Ernie drove, but he had got it done, only falling on his face twice.

'Thank God for the featherlight spell' the boy thought as he lugged the trunk up the steps. The weight without it would have been more than annoying, even if it might have been a good work out. The size and shape alone meant that carrying the thing was uncomfortable, it was too wide to grab it from the handles on either end, which meant that he had to drag it behind him all the way to the large entrance hall.

Harry had barely stepped inside Hogwarts before a stern looking McGonagall strode into sight.

"Mr. Potter, why are you not on the train?"

"Couldn't get on the platform professor, there was something wrong with the barrier," the boy replied before jumping into the whole saga.

"Odd, I will let the aurors know, and this better not become a habit," she said before heading off to handle affairs.

'Well, heaven forbid I ever get to school early again,' Harry thought staring after her, before he realized he didn't know the password for the Sett.

Leaving his luggage in the hall the boy went to find the nearest portrait, "Sir, I need some advice."

"Mr. Potter, glad to have you back with us."

"Yes sir, thank you, I need some help."

"Help ay, well what do you need?"

"I missed the Hogwart's Express, and beat it here by several hours, and now I have my trunk sitting in the Entrance Hall, without the password to my house."

"Well getting the trunk moved is easy, just call an elf."

"Oh," 'I really need to learn about House Elfs,' "Thank you."

Thinking back to Neville's actions last year Harry called out, "Hogwarts Elves."

"Sir requests something?" the toga wearing creature asked from behind him, causing the boy to jump in surprise.

"Ah, yes, I need my trunk in the entrance hall taken to the sett, as I don't know the password, is that something you could help me with?"

"Racky would be happy to help you sir," the house elf replied before silently disappearing.

'Great now I just need to figure out what I'm going to do for the next five hours.'


End file.
